TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 117 
company and go our ways alone, and taking our ponies 
rode off in opposite directions. After some time I 
tethered my steed and left him for the syce to attend 
to, and then I mooned along slowly until I must have 
traversed a mile or so. I lay down awhile, and then 
a bunch of aoul crossed my front, a Speke’s Gazelle 
with them but not of them, for he held himself well 
aloof, and seemed by his very bearing to say he was 
only with them by accident. The aoul moved on, but 
the Speke began to feed, and I realised then he carried 
a head worth having, and I must take it an’ I could. 
I was out of range, and it meant a careful stalk. I 
hoped he would not notice me if I wriggled to the 
next clump of wait-a-bit, which showed the crassness 
of my ignorance ! Of course, he knew something was 
afoot, and I had to lie still for ages ere I deceived him 
into passivity again. The ground was like a razor’s 
edge ; small stones and sharp-edged flints cut into my 
poor knees, but I crept nearer by twenty paces. The 
sunlight danced again on his shining coat, and all his 
thoughts were hemmed in now by a little patch of 
green grass he had come on. He consumed this while 
I squirmed from point to point, and then with a whisk 
of his tail he was off again. A brisk run brought him 
in view once more, and all this time my presence had 
never really irked him. Aha ! I pretty well had him. 
A few paces more when, wonder of wonders, he saw 
some danger signal in quite another quarter and 
dashed away, this time with no halting. He was gone 
for ever. I rose and stretched myself, when a distant 
bush of wait-a-bit yielded up another figure, doing^the 
